onestep
New member
Yesterday was suppose to be an easy 3 peak grab for me. My well thought out plan was to 'whack Deer Mtn, scoot over and do W East Kennebago, and on my way home hit E Elephant from the East. It was not to be though, as Maine's 5th season... Mud Season, got in the way.
I reached the Morton Cut-Off road at 8am. The drive in to Deer wasn't too bad even though I had to come to almost a complete stop at "every" culvert that crossed the road. They where *all* severely eroded and trench like. Not to worry though, my off-road Taurus was up to the task!
I started my 'whack of Deer Mtn - 3450' around 8:20am from a point along the old Lincoln Pond Rd due W of the summit. I parked near the yellow blazed Town Line and initially followed it through a beautiful open hardwood forest. I left the town line soon after it reached a thick blowdown spruce area. From there I angled NE up onto the mostly open ridge and followed that to the summit. I was back to my car at 10am. Easy-breezy!
Instead of driving back out the way I came in I decide to continue on the old Lincoln Pond Rd to hit Rt 16 near Azicohos Dam. What was I thinking?! Soon after reaching the main logging road I got the Taurus up to cruising speed. All I could see out of my rear-view mirror was dust! As I rounded a corner all that changed. Up ahead of me was the mother of all mud holes. It spanned the width of the road and was 100 yards long. I stopped to survey the situation. What the heck, if I start out on the left, ride the berm and then cross over towards the center I should be fine. I went for it! About 1/3 of the way into it I knew I made the wrong choice but there was no stopping at that point! I made it through with the help of momentum & gravity... only to find THE mother of all mud holes a quarter of a mile away!! I knew this one would not let me through so I turned around to face the lesser of two evils. The second time through the Lincoln Pond Mud Run was more interesting due to overconfidence & the fact that the road was slightly uphill. Gravity was not my friend this time... the ruts sucked me in and I scraped bottom and bounced the whole way through.
What took 20 minutes to drive in to took over an hour to drive out. I finally reached Rt 16 again and headed over to W East Kennebago - 3650'. My plan was to drive in as far as possible on logging roads and walk the remaining distance up the Jeep/ATV trail to the summit. This quick grab-&-go was not to be. About 4 miles in from Rt 16 quick sand-gravel sucked in my Taurus. No warning... nothing looked different. I sank so deep I couldn't open my doors! I did a Nascar exit out the window and walked back to RT 16 wondering how & if AAA would handle this!
I flagged down the first vehicle that drove by. It was a HUGE diesel powered Dodge 4x4 pick-up truck! with MA plates. I explained my situation and asked if he had a cell phone. He laughed and said "hop in... let's go see what we can do!" Back at my car I dug down through the gravelly muck and attached his bright yellow tow rope to what passes as the frame of my car. I KNEW this wouldn't be good. He stepped on the gas and out of the quick sand-gravel popped my Taurus... piece of cake! I offered him $13.00 for his trouble (it's all I had in my wallet) but he refused it saying something about how I made his day...
Well off he went in a cloud of diesel fumes, and off I went on foot in search of the Jeep/ATV trail.
My GPS showed the summit was 2-1/2 miles away as the crow flies. I ended up 0.47 miles due E of the peak when what I thought what was "the" Jeep trail ended. What to do? Bushwhack uphill! What a thick STEEP snow filled scrappy crapy 4/10th of a mile. Took forever but I finally reached the summit. Nice VFTT. I did not find a jar, only a small building w/ solar panels... and a JEEP Trail!
I decided to follow the Jeep trail back down. It was not intuitive to do so as my car was S of me and the Jeep trail headed off towards the NW. The Jeep "trail" is actually a narrow road that wanders around a lot. While initially it trended to the W at one point it turned and headed North! for a while. I was second guessing myself at this point but the road soon came back around and headed W again and then S towards my car...
E Elephant would have to wait for another day. I didn't get home till well after dark!
Not bad for an easy day of 'whackin, eh!? Today I think I'll wash my car.
I reached the Morton Cut-Off road at 8am. The drive in to Deer wasn't too bad even though I had to come to almost a complete stop at "every" culvert that crossed the road. They where *all* severely eroded and trench like. Not to worry though, my off-road Taurus was up to the task!
I started my 'whack of Deer Mtn - 3450' around 8:20am from a point along the old Lincoln Pond Rd due W of the summit. I parked near the yellow blazed Town Line and initially followed it through a beautiful open hardwood forest. I left the town line soon after it reached a thick blowdown spruce area. From there I angled NE up onto the mostly open ridge and followed that to the summit. I was back to my car at 10am. Easy-breezy!
Instead of driving back out the way I came in I decide to continue on the old Lincoln Pond Rd to hit Rt 16 near Azicohos Dam. What was I thinking?! Soon after reaching the main logging road I got the Taurus up to cruising speed. All I could see out of my rear-view mirror was dust! As I rounded a corner all that changed. Up ahead of me was the mother of all mud holes. It spanned the width of the road and was 100 yards long. I stopped to survey the situation. What the heck, if I start out on the left, ride the berm and then cross over towards the center I should be fine. I went for it! About 1/3 of the way into it I knew I made the wrong choice but there was no stopping at that point! I made it through with the help of momentum & gravity... only to find THE mother of all mud holes a quarter of a mile away!! I knew this one would not let me through so I turned around to face the lesser of two evils. The second time through the Lincoln Pond Mud Run was more interesting due to overconfidence & the fact that the road was slightly uphill. Gravity was not my friend this time... the ruts sucked me in and I scraped bottom and bounced the whole way through.
What took 20 minutes to drive in to took over an hour to drive out. I finally reached Rt 16 again and headed over to W East Kennebago - 3650'. My plan was to drive in as far as possible on logging roads and walk the remaining distance up the Jeep/ATV trail to the summit. This quick grab-&-go was not to be. About 4 miles in from Rt 16 quick sand-gravel sucked in my Taurus. No warning... nothing looked different. I sank so deep I couldn't open my doors! I did a Nascar exit out the window and walked back to RT 16 wondering how & if AAA would handle this!
I flagged down the first vehicle that drove by. It was a HUGE diesel powered Dodge 4x4 pick-up truck! with MA plates. I explained my situation and asked if he had a cell phone. He laughed and said "hop in... let's go see what we can do!" Back at my car I dug down through the gravelly muck and attached his bright yellow tow rope to what passes as the frame of my car. I KNEW this wouldn't be good. He stepped on the gas and out of the quick sand-gravel popped my Taurus... piece of cake! I offered him $13.00 for his trouble (it's all I had in my wallet) but he refused it saying something about how I made his day...
Well off he went in a cloud of diesel fumes, and off I went on foot in search of the Jeep/ATV trail.
My GPS showed the summit was 2-1/2 miles away as the crow flies. I ended up 0.47 miles due E of the peak when what I thought what was "the" Jeep trail ended. What to do? Bushwhack uphill! What a thick STEEP snow filled scrappy crapy 4/10th of a mile. Took forever but I finally reached the summit. Nice VFTT. I did not find a jar, only a small building w/ solar panels... and a JEEP Trail!
I decided to follow the Jeep trail back down. It was not intuitive to do so as my car was S of me and the Jeep trail headed off towards the NW. The Jeep "trail" is actually a narrow road that wanders around a lot. While initially it trended to the W at one point it turned and headed North! for a while. I was second guessing myself at this point but the road soon came back around and headed W again and then S towards my car...
E Elephant would have to wait for another day. I didn't get home till well after dark!
Not bad for an easy day of 'whackin, eh!? Today I think I'll wash my car.
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Did you get any scouting done for 'whackfest? 
